This invention relates generally to the field of shavers and razors, and more particularly to an intelligent shaver.
Ever since the invention of modem razors and shaving devices, research and development regarding shaving has been focused on improving the quality and completeness of the resulting shave. Through this research, there have been many developments in the area of safety razors and other motorized razors. In spite of these developments, the only way which a person can check the actual closeness and smoothness of a shave is to manually feel their skin or use a mirror. The use of this manual method verifies that a person has not overlooked part of the shaving area.
An example of one development which focused on aiding a person in checking the quality of their shave is U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,170 to Sagol. The Sagol patent describes a razor which includes a hair detection means. Included in the razor handle is an audio frequency pickup to detect and amplify the shaving sounds. The person who is shaving then hears these amplified sounds and must interpret the sounds to determine whether the shave is completed or not. The drawback to such a system is that the user must be able to interpret the sounds that are amplified by the device. Although a user interprets the sounds from the Sagol device, the interpretation by the person shaving may or may not be accurate. It can also be irritating to have to listen to the amplified cutting and scraping sounds of shaving.
Accordingly, it would be an improvement over the state of the art to provide a new method and apparatus for aiding a person in determining how to adjust their shaving to produce the best shave. Further, it would be an improvement to provide an apparatus to interpret shaving sounds and movements for the person shaving.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an intelligent shaver for aiding a person in determining how to adjust their shaving to produce the best shave.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an intelligent shaver which interprets and analyzes shaving sounds and provides useful feedback to the person shaving.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an intelligent shaver which interprets a person""s shaving movements and provides feedback regarding the orientation and movement of the shaver.
The presently preferred embodiment of the invention is a shaving device which has one or more shaving blades. Attached to or near the blades are sensors which produce a shaving signal. A processor or intelligent analysis unit then receives the shaving signal, and determines what shaving changes should be made. Then an audible indicator coupled to the processor or intelligent analysis unit informs the user of the shaving changes needed. The audible indicator might be a speech playback mechanism, an audible sound or an audible tone. In the alternative, a visual indicator may be used such as a liquid crystal (LCD) display or a light emitting diode (LED) display.
An alternative embodiment of the invention is a shaving device with one or more shaving blades. Attached to the blades (or near the blade) are sensors which produce a shaving signal. An analysis means receives the shaving signal and determines what shaving changes should be made. The data generated by the analysis means is stored in memory until it is downloaded into a computer or some other data gathering device.
A final embodiment of the invention is a method for improving a person""s shave, which includes the following steps. The first step is measuring at least one specific shaving parameter to produce a shaving signal. The measuring of these parameters is performed by sensors for measuring the acceleration, sound from a microphone, shaver orientation and other similar parameters through miniaturized sensors. The signals from these miniaturized sensors and microphones are then delivered as a shaving signal to a processor. Next, the shaving signal is processed to determine the shaving changes which should be made by the user to produce a better shave. The final step is producing an indicator based on the information received from the processor to instruct a person regarding improving the person""s shaving. The indicator will be either a visual display, a sound or recorded speech which tells the person what adjustments should be made to their shaving method.
These and other objects, features, advantages and alternative aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in combination with the accompanying drawings.